466 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



even in the same family. It belongs to the rose family, and is closely related to the 

 crahapple; but since it is commonly known as mahogany, it is proper to mention it 

 here. Extensive consideration is unnecessary, for the tree is not important as a 

 source of wood. Three species are recognized by some botanists, four by others. All 

 are western, and are noted for their long-tailed fruit. The generic name refers to that 

 feature. The seed, with its tail, is carried by the wind, or it catches in the wool -f 

 sheep and the hair of cattle and goats, or the feathers of birds, and is carried far and 

 near. The mountain mahogany sometimes is thirty feet high, and two in diameter. 

 It grows from 5,000 to 9,000 feet elevation, sometimes on steep cliffs. Its range 

 extends from Wyoming and Montana to Oregon, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. 

 The wood is bright, clear red, or rich dark brown. It reaches its largest size on the 

 mountains of central Nevada. Another species is known as valley mahogany 

 (Cercocarfms parvifolius). It ranges from Nebraska to Oregon, and Texas to Cali- 

 fornia. Its rate of growth is very slow, and it seldom exceeds a height of thirty f <..- 1 

 and a diameter of ten inches. The wood is reddish-brown. A third species, called 

 Trask mahogany (Cercocarpus traskue) is chiefly notable on account of its restricted 

 range. It occurs as far as known, in a single canyon of Santa Catalina island, off the 

 southern coast of California. Some of the specimens are twenty feet high and six 

 inches in diameter. A fourth species, or a variety, is known as short-flower mahogany 

 (Cercocarpus parvifolius brcviflorus). It occurs in western Texas, southern N\-w 

 Mexico and Arizona, usually at elevations about 5,000 feet above sea level where the 

 largest trees are not more than eight inches in diameter and twenty-five feet high. 



VAUQUELINIA (Vauquelinia calif ornicd) belongs to the same family as the so- 

 called western mahoganies, that is, the rose family; but it is of a different genus. Its 

 range is largely south of the international boundary, but it extends into southern 

 Arizona where the best development of the species occurs about 5,000 feet above the 

 sea on grassy slopes. It is seldom more than a bush, and the wood is very 

 heavy and hard, and is dark-brown, streaked with red. 



